Luke 23:13-34
Sermon preached at Barclay Church, Edinburgh by Rev D. Graham Leitch
13 April 2003

“.......there is a brighter light on Calvary than anywhere else beneath the sun. He who often resorts to Golgotha, if his spirit be right, must be wise. It is the University of Saints!......”

THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SAINTS
While Easter for those who are NOT Christians signals s no more than the end of winter and means no more than the waking of nature from its sleep, the lengthening of the nights and the kids on holiday from school, for Christians it means much more!

“....there is a brighter light at Calvary than anywhere else beneath the sun.....it is the University of the Saints!!.....”

This Easter the course we’re enrolling in is called “Prayers from the Cross”, the reading list is a collection of Books (66 in all) called the Bible, and our course tutor (appointed by the University’s Divine President) will be the Holy Spirit!

One of the amazing things about the Bible is that beneath the simplest text lies sublimest truth. Again and again, as we study the prayers of Jesus, we shall find this the case. We might begin by saying “I can’t see much there!”- but a wealth of lessons teems beneath the surface - shafts of light pierce the darkness bringing insight to our minds and encouragement to our hearts - breathtaking facts that challenge us to sit up and think about life and rethink our own lives.

SEVEN WORDS FROM THE CROSS
Jesus spoke seven words - said seven things - from the Cross. Three are addressed to individuals and groups of individuals:

1. He spoke to a common thief - one of two criminals executed beside him who begged for mercy.
“Today” Jesus told him “you will be with me in Paradise.”

2. He spoke to those who were putting him so cruelly to death “I thirst” And in response, in the only
act of tenderness and pity shown him by those executed him, he was offered a mixture of wine a
myrrh to quench his thirst and dull his senses - a drink He refused.

3. He spoke to his mother Mary, commending her to the care of Peter, his closest earthly friend - now
that he was gone Peter must care for her as a son his mother: “Mother, behold thy son!”

But the rest of Jesus words from the cross are addressed to God:

4. His first prayer to God is for the forgiveness of those who executed him. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!’

5. And then there is the appalling indication of what caused his greatest pain as He hung there - not the nails in his flesh, not the insults of his scoffing enemies, nor the ignominy of the cross but the lost sense of His Fathers presence - the sense that He was abandoned by God. These searing words:

“My God! My God! What hast Thou forsaken me”

6. There is the triumphant cry of victory, having completed all that God has called and appointed Him to do - the penalty of sin paid, atonement made, redemption completed, salvation won. A cry of victory addressed to God, yes, but addressed to all who will believe - a cry which echoes still around the world
declaring the essence of the Gospel: “It is finished!!”

Here is the eternal YES! of God to our pardon awaiting the answering YES! of acceptance and faith!

7. And, finally, there is Christ’s readiness now to return whence He came - to His eternal Father -

“Father, into thy hands I commend my Spirit!”

A NEW SERIES
Over the next month and a half - after Easter and through most of May, we’ll be listening intently to the voice of Christ from the Cross, considering the prayers He utters there and applying what we learn to the call God addressed to us to be His disciples today.

And so, as we approach Calvary and that most holy yet most horrific scenes, amid the sound of wood upon metal with each hammer-blow, the cries of labour as first one cross and then another is hoisted to its place, amid the cruel mockeries of His executioners and the murmur of the growing crowd, the plea of Jesus can be heard:

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!”

Remember, before we look at the substance of Jesus’ first word from the Cross, what has happened.

THE BACKGROUND....
He has been betrayed by Judas, a close companion and friend. He has been arrested at night - seized by the sword, forsaken by the disciples (Matthew 26:56) and disowned by Peter His closest earthly friend. He has been ignominiously paraded before Annas and Caiaphas and condemned as an impostor. Handed over to the gaoler and the mob, they spat in his face, blindfolded Jesus and struck him with their fists crying “Prophecy, fool!”

Led before Pilate and the Roman authorities He was pronounced not guilty - but out craven fear of disorder and trouble from the Jews Pilate had him scourged and, as the crowd brayed “Crucify,” changed tack and handed him over to be put to death.

Tearing his clothes from Him, he was was dressed in a purple robe and a crown of thorns plaited and thrust upon his head. They thrust a stick into his hand as a sceptre and mocked him as a misguided self-deluded and dangerous fool.

And he was led from the Praetorium, weak from abuse, to his death. Laid upon the cross, the nails are driven through his hands and, with intentional roughness, the cross is hoisted high and dropped into its ditch - the soldiers seem to take pleasure in His sufferings....

Remember, before we look at the substance of Jesus’ first word from the Cross - what has happened - ALL THAT! And notice too, before we look at the substance of Jesus’ words, that Jesus still prays!
What a lesson there is here!!

...YET JESUS STILL PRAYS!
In our lives, when troubles come, prayer ought to be our first resort. The pattern, more commonly, is that folk only really begin to pray when the situation gets serious enough!! This betrays a false view of prayer - the idea that prayer is some kind of spiritual “emergency service” - but that’s what happens.

Someone’s a little bit ill and folk say “Oh yes!” and they might think of them a little but they don’t pray. But then someone get more ill or really ill and then, and only then, for many people, prayer comes in.

The same’s often true of the person who’s ill or in trouble - people mistakenly make prayer their last resort. But then something else can happen - and it often happens when troubles multiply or suffering is added to suffering, pain and disappointment meet pain and disappointment.

What happens then? A stage comes when those who try prayer out move beyond prayer! They decide that God can’t hear them. “Maybe God isn’t there!” they say because no answer comes - or at least not the answer they want!! So they give up. They stop praying and start to turn away from God.

THE SECRET OF PRAYER IN EXTREMIS
Notice, here, that after all he has endured - everything - Jesus STILL prays!! What’s the secret? How can He do this? I think there are two explanations:

The first lies in Jesus’ understanding of prayer. Prayer, you see, is not trying to argue God into giving us what we want - it isn’t bending HIS will to OUR desires; it is submitting OUR will to HIS desires. The essence of all prayer must be this: “Not MY will but THINE be done!”

Prayer is not a convenient device for imposing our will upon God - to regard prayer and employ prayer in this way is to invite disappointment and disillusionment. Those who thus employ prayer will sooner or later move beyond prayer.

But prayer is not a convenient device for imposing our will upon God. It is, rather, a means of surrendering our will and submitting our will, in faith, to His!! And those who thus employ prayer will never cease to pray!

The second secret of Jesus’ prayer “in extremis” is in Jesus’ practice of prayer through His life. Those to whom prayer is a daily habit and conversation with God, a natural and normal thing (as it was for Jesus), are those least likely to abandon prayer or face disillusionment “in extremis.”

It was because Jesus’ life was “Baptised in the spirit of prayer”, because He lived in it and it lived in him - because prayer had become so much an element of His nature that, despite the weakness of his body and the pain of His soul, even on the Cross, Jesus still prayed.

And this was His prayer - after all He had suffered, after all He had endured, while His life began to ebb away:

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!”

FOUR AMAZING FACTS
Here are FOUR AMAZING THINGS about Jesus’ first word from the Cross.

1. THE NAME BY WHICH HE CALLS GOD - FATHER!
The first one is this. He not only still prays, but still prays “Father” Despite all He has suffered and all He is going through (a suffering such as no-one before or since has ever known in depth or intensity) He still calls God “Father...” As it was “Abba, Father” in the garden of Gethsemane - “Abba Father, if it is possible let this cup pass by me..” so it is “Abba, Father” still!!

We need to learn from this, even in the most difficult distressing moment, even in the darkest and most painful times in life, not to lose our trust in the unchangeable love and eternal Fatherhood of God. Lose this and you lose ALL!!

2. THE UNSELFISHNESS OF THE PRAYER
The second thing - and it is a truly remarkable thing in the circumstances - is the UNSELFISHNESS of the prayer.

In extremis - when we are struggling, suffering, we may not be self-possessed, but we are usually self-obsessed. It’s “I” and “me” and “my needs” that come to the fore. But Christ’s first thoughts are not for himself but for others.

I have been struck ever since the fact of my probably departure was announced last Sunday, by the way most folk’s response related to how it will impact THEM - that’s a natural and perfectly human reaction of, course but on the cross - even on the cross - Christ thought of others before himself!!

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!”

Even on the cross his first thought was for others. There is in all of us a natural self-centredness of which we find no trace in Jesus - his whole life is other-centred and, above all, God centred.

3. THE GENEROSITY OF THE PRAYER
The third thing is this - the GENEROSITY of the prayer - He asks God to pardon them, for, He pleads “they know not what they do!” Notice the mercy which seeks to excuse them. It’s almost as though he says “Lord, if they knew what they were doing they wouldn’t be doing this!” Well might he have called down the fire of divine judgment yet He mitigates their sin.
Here is kindness indeed, flowing from the heart of the greatest unkindness the world has ever witnessed!! They nail him to the cross and He prays“They know not what they do!”

Undeserved kindness! For surely Judas knew precisely what he was doing when he quite deliberately sold his Master, and the disciples when they abandoned Him and Peter when he denied Him and Pilate when he sent him to the cross.... they KNEW what they were doing!

Yet others, not knowing He was the Messiah and the Son of God, sinned in ignorance. They didn’t know WHO IT WAS they mocked and scorned. They didn’t know WHO IT WAS they nailed to the cross! And had it been shown them they might have protested with shame “If only I had known...”

But ignorance of the law does not excuse the offender. And ignorance of the truth does not render us guiltless. Even the one who does wrong, unknowingly, still sins.

See what great GENEROSITY Christ shows here in his judgment of those who condemned and crucified Him. See his readiness to give them “the benefit of the doubt”

How readily do you give others “the benefit of the doubt” when they wrong you. Do you interpret as intentional what is accidental? Do you see spite where there is none? Do you think the WORST of others or consciously strive, as a Christian, to think the best of others?

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!”

4. THE SUBSTANCE OF THE PRAYER
Next, notice the SUBSTANCE of the prayer - “Father, FORGIVE them...” He prays not for their enlightenment but for their FORGIVENESS.

In the very act of bearing sin and suffering its penalty in his crucified body He begs from the Father for them what, as the Son, He is about to win - their pardon!!

And so the plea of his words merges with the plea of His sacrifice and rises as one to God. It was for this He bled and died - not just to provide an example but to procure a pardon - your pardon and mine - and to open up the way to God. As the Bible says:

“Christ died for sins, once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.”
1 Peter 3:18

Christ did not pray “Father, avenge...” but “Father, forgive....” At the heart of the Gospel lies the lies the free gift of FORGIVENESS offered to us because of the death of Jesus in our place. In one of his books Billy Graham says this:

“In these days of guilt complexes perhaps the most glorious word in the English language is forgiveness....” But I don’t agree! I think on this occasion that Billy Graham’s wrong. The greatest word in the English language is not forgiveness. It is FORGIVEN!!

And there is no-one here too bad to be forgiven or to late to be forgiven!! FORGIVEN!! It’s the word God indelibly writes upon the record of our sins when we turn to Christ and believe. FORGIVEN!!
Jesus Christ, because of his death for sins upon the cross, offers divine pardon to us not as a future prospect - then, at the last, when we die. It’s more than that!! He offers it to us as a present reality - FORGIVEN!!

We have noticed its unselfishness and generosity. We have notices its substance - FORGIVENESS. Notice finally its subjects - it is “Father, forgive THEM....”

5 THE SUBJECTS OF HIS PRAYER
He might have prayed for Judas who betrayed Him by name, or for Peter who denied Him, for the Jews who brayed for his crucifixion, for the Roman officers who organised it or the soldiers who nailed him to the cross. But He doesn’t - it’s indistinct - it’s THEM!!

“Father, forgive THEM....”

There can be no doubt that Jesus did pray for those I’ve mentioned but his prayer is wider - the single word THEM embraces every sinner and excludes none from the best to the worst!! It is wonderfully inclusive and may reach, if only we trust Jesus Christ as our Saviour, even to you and me!!

“Now into that pronoun "them" I feel that I can crawl Can you get in there? Oh, by a humble faith,
appropriate the cross of Christ by trusting in it; and get into that big little word“them.”

This Easter, as you look at Cross, listen to Christ praying for you there, for as surely it was the Jews hostility and the Romans cruelty it was YOUR SIN AND MINE that nailed him there.

But then look again, and not only listen to Him praying for you but seeing Him dying for you there, and realise, if you have never realised it before, what it really means. Because what it really means is wonderful.

I can think of no-one who put it better than the old preacher Campbell Morgan. He once said:

“No-one who has truly seen the cross of Christ can speak of hopeless cases again.”

At the foot of the cross all of us are equal, and no-one need be without hope.

AMEN